Using the Decoder · 5 min read
How to Read Your Needs Signal Report
Scores, quotes, collisions, and rewrites — what each section of the decoder output means and what to do with it.
Start with the collision, not the scores
The scores tell you intensity; the collision map tells you the story. Read which two needs were pulling against each other, then look back at the quotes attached to each. The quotes are the evidence — if they do not feel true to you, the reading is wrong and you should say so out loud to each other.
Treat the rewrites as drafts
The 'Say It Better' section is not a script to read aloud. It is a demonstration of the structure. Put the rewrite in your own vocabulary before you use it, or it will sound like someone else is talking through you.
Review it together, not at each other
Print two copies. Read them separately, mark the one line in your own section that stings because it is accurate, and start there. Reports used as ammunition make the next fight worse; reports used as mirrors shorten it.
Try it on your own conversation
Paste a real exchange and get a printable Needs Signal Report in about a minute.
Open the decoder